Thanks for the input, especially the table conditions. Thinking about heading over there Friday night. I'm usually a $5 player, but that may be hard to find on a Friday night; I'd be OK with $10 or even $15 (esp. in 2D). Will let y'all know how I like the new place. Thanks.

How do CSM's slow down your game? They should be the fastest game in town! Or were you pulling my leg?

My field of studies involves observations of human work, so I tend to notice these things.CSMs are, in fact, very slow. Let me go over it.Let's start with why it should be faster:1) No need to wait and shuffle the cards2) No "cutting of the deck"3) "Infinite penetration" (in terms of when we shuffle)So indeed, CSMs main speed advantage is that you don't need to shuffle. This is useful if the game table is full, and if the casino would otherwise have low penetration. For example, I've seen 6deck games with 40% penetration in st. louis. Of course, some of the advantage is lost if the casino uses deeper penetration, shoes, and preferably, shuffle machines.

Now for why it would be slower:1) In most casinos where I observed CSMs, everything is placed into the system after every round. So let's say the dealer spends 2 seconds total following every round taking the cards, putting them in the machine. Esp. if the table is nearly empty, that becomes very meaningful2) Unlike most shoes (and of course, hand held games), you can't just pull out cards as fast as your hands can move. CSM machines spew the cards one by one, and there is about 0.75sec delay between a car being pulled out and the next one coming in. Now if you notice experienced dealers using a shoe, they can often do about 4 cards per second, and less experienced dealers do it at about 2 cards per second. As a result, you have a delay of about 0.25-0.5 secs per card. Added up, this makes for a very slow game. If we assume, for example, that there are six players at the table, then the CSM adds (just for the initial deal) 7*2*0.25=3.5secs per deal, and another 2 secs following each hand (and these are the more optimistic estimates). So you're paying at least 5 secs per round with five players, and 6.5 for eight players. If we assume that we can play about 15 rounds on a shoe game (and we can probably get more), you will spend a minute extra. Now these are pretty conservative numbers, I think things are in fact slower (i.e. 0.5 per card rather than 0.25), so the time would double.

Now shuffling takes varying amounts of time, depending on caling the pit boss, how much shuffling is done, etc. In casinos which utilize autoshufle machines (which I dont' mind for shoe games, good luck tracking these anyway), everything takes less than 40 seconds.

So what you have is slower rounds vs. occasional long pauses. I would rather take the former.

Just returned from an overnight trip. This place is very impressive. Big, lots of tables, quiet, easy to find an open spot. Only negative being, waitresses didn't come around very often. I played mostly 2D, $10 min. The conditions were very similar to those mentioned in iitmfl2's previous post. Dealers were making mistakes. I even noticed a dealer over-pay a player at buy-in. That player made money even before the first hand was dealt! Another dealer accidently flipped over the hole card. The PB let everyone play out the hand. Overall, the atmosphere was fantastic. Friendly dealers and pit crews. Comps were easy to come by, I guess this is expected at a new place. I think I have a new favorite "local" casino!

I was there last Thursday night and Friday until noon and played those games. I expect that $10 2D will be available Friday nights. Won't know for sure until this Friday when I return. I will report my findings next week.

jlc,I was back at LDL last Friday until 6:00 PM and saw $5 minimum tables. I still have not played on a weekend to know for sure if they remain through Friday night and Saturdays. One $5 table was raised to $10 while I was playing. I saw an empty $25 table once and asked if they would allow me to start at $10. My request was denied. If you have returned on a weekend since your last post I would like to know what conditions you found.

Finally made my way out to the new place, on the last two Friday nights. It's packed between 11 pm and 3 am, to the point where it's a bit tough to get a spot on the $10 and $15 6D tables (and there are no $5 tables all night). 2D tables are $25 minimum.

After 3 am, it starts to thin out and you can move from table to table at will, although they're still $10. By early Saturday morning -- 6-8 am, place is pretty dead and they start changing cards.

Encountered no difficulties playing $10 6D and spreading 1-8 or so (with KO). Same for a friend at a nearby table, and later at the same table, spreading about the same (with KISS II). Got reamed on every big bet, but that's another conversation entirely.

jlc,My wife went with me this time and we had a great time, but, as with you, I did not bring $$$ home. In fact she made a little on slots! What is your impression of LDL and have you had good experience with KISS? It's rare that posters on this board, counters or not, report on their trips. It would be interesting to me to know about some success stories since I plan to upgrade my own level of play between now and year end.

I really like LDL. It doesn't feel like the usual in La. -- even though Coushatta isn't bad, this is in another league. For the most part dealers are fun and friendly, the crowd is fun and there's a good vibe. And, despite the fact that I haven't won yet, I've been able to count comfortably without worrying about too much. Of course, at the rate I've lost money, I'm guessing they haven't been in much of a hurry to stop me.

I played KISS II for a little while but have since switched to KO, mostly because it doesn't require you to memorize as many complicated strategy changes. I've had some success with it, both in La. and in Vegas.